GRASSES &> FERNS AS ACCESSORIES IN MOUNTING 391 



must be let down with more turpentine, so that the grass may 

 have a certain " nature," but not be " shiny." Often such 

 grasses are crimson and pink or yellowish at their bases, and 

 there may be greys at their tips or other parts, and all of these 

 effects must be looked for and, when recognised, imitated as 

 skilfully as may be. White is in nearly all cases present, and 

 may be mixed with the pigments to get certain tints. 



Other grasses, reeds, and carexes there are of which the 

 " seed " (panicle) may be used, as in many species it dries well 

 and retains its place. Leaving out the usual sedges and 

 bulrushes — which are of no value, and are distinctly out of 

 place in any other situation than in a case tall enough to hold 

 the whole height of the plant, — the very pretty wood melick, 

 Melica uniflora, is extremely elegant in its panicle of drooping 

 flowers rising above a tuft of rather broad blades of grass. 

 These iron very well, and, with a little care and the introduction 

 of a few modelled leaf-blades, the result is very natural. The 

 seed-vessels of the toad-rush, y«<««<j bufonius, and, indeed, the 

 whole plant, dry and colour remarkably well, and there are 

 various other rushes, including the great wood - rush, Luzula 

 maxima, and the hairy wood-rush, Luzula forsteri, very valuable 

 for mounting, and some others which come in handily. 



It may be stated that, as a rule, there are no tree nor 

 other leaves with which anything can be done ; a little reflec- 

 tion will show that such leaves must be dried and pressed, and 

 that both processes deprive them of their natural succulency 

 and shapes, and they must therefore be reproduced by model- 

 ling^, as directed in Chapter IX. 



Ferns, which are so very taking in a landscape, are, with 

 few exceptions, too weak to take colour, and must be pressed 

 also. The exceptions are the polypody, Polypodium vulgare, 

 hart's tongue, Scolopendrium vulgare, and, best of all, the 

 common brake*' or bracken, Pteris aquilina, of the heath or 



